Vedat Türkali dies at 97

Vedat
Türkali, one of the prominent figures of literature and intellectual
world of Turkey, died this morning in a hospital in Yalova, where he
had been treated for some time. His actress daughter Deniz Türkali
announced his father's passing away via her Twitter account.

Who is Vedat
Türkali?

Born
on May 13, 1919 in Samsun, Vedat Türkali studied Turkish language
and literature in Istanbul University. In 1942, he got married to
Merih Pirhasan.

After
working as a literature teacher in high schools, he got arrested in
1951 because of his political views and activities. Sentenced to 9
years in prison, he was released on probation after 7 years.

He
founded Gar Publising with Rıfat Ilgaz. In 1960, he wrote his first
script (Dolandırıcılar Şahı). In 1965, he was awarded with the
best screenplay prize in Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. He
wrote a lot of scripts and novels.

Vedat
Türkali was also a prominent figure in Turkish political history
and debates. He was once a member of Turkish Communist Party and he
had always taken part in struggles for labor, democracy and peace. In
2002, he was a parliamentary candidate of DEHAP (Democratic People's
Party), but he hadn't been elected. However, he had always been
writing and expressing his opinions concerning political issue in
Turkey.

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